California doctor sentenced to more than 2 years in prison over death of Friends star Matthew Perry

A California doctor has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for selling ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry – the first criminal conviction over the death of the actor, who was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in October 2023.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who ran an urgent care clinic in Malibu, California, was one of five people federally charged after the death of 54-year-old Perry, who played Chandler Bing in the hit NBC show from 1994 to 2004.

Plasencia, who had been due to go on trial in August before reaching a plea deal, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in Los Angeles federal court. He pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distribution of ketamine.

He was not charged with selling the dose that caused Perry’s death.

Investigators say that Perry was found dead in his hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home on October 28, 2023, by his personal assistant,t Kenneth Iwamasa, who was the person who injected the actor with the ketamine that led to his death.

Court documents stated that Iwamasa had no medical training and “knew little if anything” about administering controlled substances.

Prosecutors say that in the four days leading up to Perry’s death, Iwamasa gave him more than 20 shots of ketamine, with three on the actual day he died.

In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office declared that Perry passed away from the “acute effects of ketamine.”

The autopsy report also cited drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is a drug used to treat opioid use disorder, as contributing to his death.

Prosecutors say that Perry had used ketamine to treat depression and had received ketamine infusion therapy from doctors. But it is claimed the actor began getting the drug from dealers when his doctors refused to prescribe him more doses.

The Department of Justice claims that an underground criminal network took advantage of Perry by illegally selling him ketamine.

Perry had spoken openly about his struggle with addiction and detailed it in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and The Big Terrible Thing.

In it, he wrote that he started abusing prescription medication after a jet ski accident on the set of ‘Fools Rush In’ in 1997, for which he was prescribed Vicodin.

Dr Mark Chavez, a San Diego doctor, admitted in a plea agreement that he obtained ketamine from his former clinic and from a wholesale distributor where he submitted a fraudulent prescription. He is due to be sentenced later this month.

Chavez admitted that he sold ketamine to Plasencia, whom he has known for at least 20 years. He said that he understood the drug was being sold to Perry.

Plasencia, who now lives in Arizona with his wife and two-year-old son, had faced trial alongside “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, who was accused of selling Perry the dose of ketamine that killed him.

Prosecutors had recommended a 36-month sentence, saying that he “sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit.”

They added: ”Indeed, the day defendant met Perry, he made his profit motive known, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘let’s find out.’”

Plasencia’s lawyers had requested a one-day sentence, with credit for time already served, and three years of supervised release.

“He has already lost his medical license, his clinic, and his career,” they wrote in a pre-sentencing filing. “He has also been viciously attacked in the media and threatened by strangers to the point where his family has moved out of state for their safety.”

His lawyers acknowledged that Plasencia had treated Perry “without adequate knowledge of ketamine therapy and without a full understanding of his patient’s addiction.”

And they called it the “biggest mistake of his life.”

Sangha, of North Hollywood, allegedly charged Perry $50,000 for around 50 vials of the drug. Prosecutors describe her as a drug trafficker who knew the ketamine she distributed could be deadly.

Her home is described as a “drug-selling emporium” where more than 80 vials of ketamine were allegedly found along with thousands of pills that included methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax.

Sangha pleaded guilty to five federal criminal charges, including that she provided the ketamine that ultimately resulted in Perry’s fatal overdose.

Erik Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne, pleaded guilty on August 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death, admitting that he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry, prosecutors said. He is set to be sentenced in January.

Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and will be sentenced in January.